pretty little smile
by the lola
Summary: "One day- he doesn't know exactly when, but she realizes that her pretty little smiles are all that she needs to get by and make people see her as a happy person." Blaise sees right through that pretty little smile.


**I**

He first sets eyes on her as they board the Hogwarts express. Those shiny blonde locks and the glistening blue eyes, they have him hooked from this day.

He tries to; he _wants_ to- desperately- speak to this girl whose name he does not know. The girl that is in Slytherin, yet for the life of him he cannot work out _why_ someone like her would get put in this house.

He's only eleven yet she's constantly floating through his mind and flowing through his veins, and it completely frustrates him yet exhilarates him.

She gives him this look- her eyes are slightly narrowed, and her lips pursed, yet her features are soft and it's as if she _wants_ him to think she has no interest, but really she has every bit of interest in him.

**II**

In potions class, she sits directly in front of him and it soon becomes his favourite lesson. He can just stare at her beautiful hair, and hear her sugary words without actually having to _do_ or _say_ anything.

And he can't help but notice how she's _always_ on her own. Why? He wishes he knew. He wants to jump into her head, to crawl through it and rip it apart and find out everything she seems to be hiding from everyone. He's just twelve years old, but he feels as if he understands more than he should.

She seems to be forever out by the lake, staring out, eyes glinting with _something_- but Blaise doesn't know what. He feels like the tiny girl has the world on her shoulders, but no one notices because no one looks at her like he does. They don't realize that when they stop looking, her shoulders slump, her face drops, her smile falls. But he does, he notices.

**III**

One day- he doesn't know exactly when, but she realizes that her pretty little smiles are all that she needs to get by and make people see her as a happy person.

Someone speaks to her, and she just throws them that identical pretty smile, turning up the corners of her mouth and showing her white teeth just a little underneath her pale pink rosebud lips. He has to admit, it _is_ a pretty, happy, _perfect_ smile, but he has never seen one so clearly fake as that. He doesn't understand how no one else sees it.

_Finally_, he works up the courage to talk to her.

"Hello…" He's never nervous around anyone, but she makes him on edge, he's built this up for three years and he doesn't want it to all come crashing down.

"Hi! Blaise, isn't it?" And she flashes that pretty little smile, extending a dainty hand out to him.

His eyes subconsciously widen as she flashes that same fake smile, but he takes her hand nevertheless, hesitant to let go. "Yep, that's me. And your name?"

"I'm Daphne. Daphne Greengrass." She cocks her head and puts her books down on the table, taking a seat next to it.

It's like a dream but a nightmare at the exact same time. It's like a buzzing in his head because she feels _so_ amazing, but _so_ … so sad, so fake; so much seems to be hidden. He wants to peel back the layers and find what's really going on underneath all that.

But the million dollar question…

Why does he care so much, why does she fascinate and hypnotize and why does he see straight through her?

**IV**

He walks into the common room late- too late at night, and it's empty and cold and he doesn't expect anyone to be around. But she's there, _Daphne's _there. She's crying, he hears her soft sobs and sees her tiny body shake with them, and she doesn't notice that he's there.

Leaving and reentering so that she hears him this time, she jolts with fright and wipes at her eyes, throwing him that pretty little smile like she always does. In this moment, he _hates_ the smile, for being so deceiving, for covering so much up- he _knows _she's not okay.

"Are you okay?" He slides down on the floor next to her, genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, I'm great!" That same pretty little smile comes out to play again, and the frustration builds up inside of him.

"No, you're not…"

Her face falls, and he knows that she knows that he understands her. Even though he doesn't understand _why_ she's sad, he understands that she is, which is more than most can say.

The moment becomes tense and he feels as if he could cut it with a knife. There seems to be a sudden realization and understanding between them. He tries to hold himself back, but when he can no longer stand it, he presses a kiss to her lips. He waits for her to push him away, but she doesn't. She kisses back.

Many more kisses are shared throughout that year, but she's still not willing to _share_ herself with him. He's bothered by it, but he has her by his side and it's _enough_ for now. He can protect her while she's his, and right now she is.

**V**

Gradually, she opens up. Her mother is dead; her father doesn't care about her. Her sister hates her, she doesn't _know_ love. Suddenly everything makes sense, and all he wants to do is be there for her. He wants to make her _really_, _truly_ smile- he wants to be the first one to see her real smile.

She has her moments of silence- he thinks silence is Daphne's loudest scream. If she's silent, something is wrong. Daphne isn't a silent person; she picks things out of nothing and finds beauty in ugly and practically lights up his world with just one glance in his direction.

They're discovering things about each other, spending hours upon hours together but always entertaining each other.

He notices her quirks, the way she bites her lip when she doesn't know what to say, the way she can never sit still and is constantly tapping her fingers or shaking her leg, the way she rubs at her temples to concentrate and the little twitch she has when she sleeps.

And finally, after so many _pretty little smiles_, _fake _smiles, _misleading_ smiles, he sees her smile a real smile. And it's hypnotizing, entrancing and radiant. All he can do is stare at her perfect teeth and lips, it makes him want to kiss her senseless but he doesn't want to let the moment of her real smiling go.

**VI**

He knows relationships are never perfect- the cracks begin and he convinces himself that it's his entire fault.

"I love you." The words slip out, but he means them and he won't take them back.

"I- I… I know." She stutters and stumbles before deciding to flash her pretty little smile that gets her out of everything- except when she shows it to Blaise, because he knows just how very fake it is.

And it's putting pressure on his heart as each second goes by because it's making him doubt himself. Doesn't she love him? Does she just want someone to help her forget her pain? Is he just a toy, just a game?

Finally it's too much, he dissolves into tears and it's the first time he's cried in a _long_ time. Things have piled up on top of each other and pressure has been added and he just can't hold it in anymore.

He's so frustrated. He loves her but it's not enough anymore, she needs to love him back and he needs to know he's not just a toy, a game.

"Why won't you say it back?" For the first time, he looses his temper with her.

"You can't push me Blaise, you can't push this!" For the first time, she looses her temper with him.

He can't leave her, but he can't stay with her either. It breaks his heart, but they decide to take a break.

**VII**

He hates it because she always looks so sad when no one's looking, and the 'break' seems like it's never going to end.

She stops sitting by the lake, she stops drawing, she stops laughing, and eventually that pretty little smile fades all together. He finds that as much as he hates it, he misses it now that it's gone.

He misses her now that she's gone. He loves her, he still loves her.

Her cobalt eyes stare straight through him emotionlessly, and he doesn't quite know how to react anymore. He feels like the nervous boy that didn't know her name nor how to speak to her again, and he hates it.

Eventually, enough is enough because he just can't _take_ the blankness of her face, the posture that suggests she's given in, and her staring straight through him. He wants an answer and he wants it now because he can't be stuck like this, wanting and hurting for someone who might never want him back.

"Daphne… how long is this going to go on for?"

"Maybe we should just stop this now."

"So you do love me?"

"No, I don't… I don't think I do, at least not now. I need to be alone, I want us to end. I want you to stop looking at me like you understand, I want you to let me at least _pretend_ to be happy, I can't have someone like you understanding me and treating me as if I'm transparent."

And just like that, his world, his heart, is shattered into thousands of pieces that can never be glued back together because _she_ is the glue.

She goes back to tossing her glossy locks around, and flashing her pretty little smiles to everyone. Before he knows it, he's faded into the background of his life, and of her heart. She doesn't pay him a single look, she's skilled at avoiding him and if she doesn't want him to find her then he won't.

The end of the year nears, and he feels like he'll never get her back. Despair tightens around his chest, and his heart feels depleted and hollow. He sees the flash of her hair as she steps off of the Hogwarts Express- the first place he laid eyes on her, and he feels as if it will now be the last time he sees her. And although it crushes him more than he thought possible, he accepts that.

**VIII**

He's sitting on a bench in a muggle park, not able to shake the loneliness that's eating away at him. Her _pretty little smile_, her glittery eyes and her wavy locks run constantly through his mind through every second of the day. Her sugary words, her funny comments, her cute quirks- he can't take it. He _needs_ her and she needs him.

And that's when he sees her. She's leaning against the fence dressed in a flowing turquoise skirt and a white shirt, her wavy hair tumbling down her front, her blue eyes framed by dark eyelashes and she's biting on her lip.

Shaking his head rapidly, he reprimands himself for creating such a beautiful image. That's _not_ Daphne, it couldn't be, and it _wouldn't_ be.

But sure enough, she's running towards him, and her tiny arms are around his neck and her tears are soaking his shirt. "I'm sorry," She whispers, "So, so sorry. I love you." And she places feverish kisses allover his face, his neck, wherever she can. "I love you, I love you, I love you," She continues, nails digging into his back by this point.

He's speechless because he can hardly believe she's here and she's real, he hasn't seen her in _months_, and she just said that she loves him. "I love you too, forever and always." Because there's nothing else he could say without it being a lie, and he knows they're going to be okay.

* * *

A/N- Aaaah this was so nice to write! A happy ending for my Blaise and Daphne? I think this is the first real happy ending I've done for these two, and it's about time! I wrote this for **The Speed Of Lightning Competition** – Round Four (I think hahhaa…) we had to write a story with a happy ending. So, I hope you all enjoyed this, and please leave me a review and let me know what you thought!


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